New England RadioWatch: January 18, 1997

The talk radio wars in Hartford have claimed a victim: WPOP (1410)
abruptly cancelled all its programming last week, and after a weekend
of dance/CHR music, re-emerged Monday (1/13) as "Sports Radio 1410,"
minus its entire programming staff.

The format change comes just on the heels of WPOP's sale to SFX
Broadcasting from Multi-Market Communications, which had run the
station as a mix of local and satellite talk. Among the shows that
originated at WPOP was the syndicated "Judy Jarvis Show," which has
shifted production to the Robinson Media Arts Center next to the
Connecticut School of Broadcasting in Farmington. Jarvis no longer
has a Hartford-area outlet. Jarvis needed to move no matter what,
since the WPOP studios in Newington are being sold as part of SFX's
consolidation of its many Hartford stations.

Regaining an outlet in Hartford is the "Fabulous Sports Babe," whose
show originates just down the road from WPOP at ESPN in Bristol, CT.
WPOP's new format includes five hours a day of the Babe, along with
copious quantities of "One-on-One Sports." Local sports talk will
reportedly follow soon...

WRKO's morning team has returned to the airwaves after their 7-day
absence. Pat Whitley and Marjorie Clapprood were back in their 5:30
to 10 am spot this week, saying little about the on-air spat that led
to Clapprood walking out and Whitley being pulled from the air.
Settling into his new weekend slot is Jerry Williams, who's apparently
working from home -- his first weekend show began with 10 minutes or
so of complaining about an echo on his ISDN connection!

Yo-ho! Yo-ho! More news from the pirate front: We begin this
week with our friends down at "Praise 105.3" in Connecticut, that
unlicensed gospel-music station that NERW first noticed about a month
ago. It seems "Praise" has been noticed by a few others as well, most
notably the folks down at licensed WKND (1480) in Windsor CT, who say
they're losing something like $10,000 a month to "Praise." Someone's
called the FCC (yes, they really do still exist!), and "Praise
105.3"'s "Sponsor Appreciation Day" on Thursday was marred by the
sudden discovery by some of those sponsors that the station they were
advertising on is illegal. Marichal Monts, the pastor of the Citadel
of Love in Hartford, and a gospel show host on Wesleyan University's
WESU (88.1) Middletown, says he's pulling his support from "Praise
105.3." Monts told the Hartford Courant that he knew the
station was unlicensed, but didn't realize it was illegal -- and he's
"not trying to break the law." The operator of "Praise 105.3," one
Mark Blake, refused to answer questions from the Courant. Published
reports put the station at 701 Cottage Grove Road in Bloomfield CT,
which suggests that the station is probably running over a hundred
watts of power, given how good its signal is in Hartford's north,
west, and east suburbs.

Another pirate that's been pinned down is an 87.9 in Westford MA,
northwest of Boston. NERW has learned that the station is coming from
Graniteville Road, near Westford Center. So far, all that's been
heard on 87.9 is music, apparently alternating from two CD players.

Skating the thin line between licensed and not: Most of Harvest
Broadcasting's translators in the Connecticut River Valley have
switched primary station, from WGLV (104.3) Hartford-White River
Junction VT to WMYY (97.3) Schoharie NY. WMYY is part of the "Alive"
network of stations, which also includes WHAZ (1330) Troy NY and WBAR
(94.7) Lake Luzerne NY. Crack NERW correspondent Doug Bassett reports
"Alive" programming is now being heard on most or all of the
following:

All these stations, with the exception of Westfield and Marlboro, are
licensed to Brian Dodge's Harvest Broadcasting, which owns WWNH (1340)
Madbury NH and has gotten into FCC trouble in the past for running an
illegal STL at a Manchester NH station and operating WRUT (107.5) West
Rutland VT after its construction permit had been cancelled. The
Westfield station was to have been a translator of WIHS (104.9)
Middletown CT, and Marlboro was to have been a translator of WVAY
(100.7) Wilmington VT.

Doug says the Alive network has been appealing on-air for money to
replace the 1950s-vintage transmitter at WMYY, and saying that the
WMYY signal feeds WBAR and the New England translators. Doug also
reports that the audio quality of the feed to the translators is
hideous.

An historic Boston call is turning up again out west. WAQY (1600) in
West Longmeadow MA, near Springfield, has applied to change calls to
WMRE. Those are the calls that were used in Boston in the 80s for the
former WMEX (1510, now WNRB). In Boston, they denoted the "Memories"
adult standards format...we don't know yet what they'll mean in
Springfield, where 1600 recently returned to the air as a simulcast of
WAQY-FM (102.1).

Kudos to Boston Herald columnist Dean Johnson, who
(aided by an anonymous FAX-sender from a local radio station),
delivered an unusually insightful column this week about the
difficulties of keeping an on-air career in this day and age of
satellites and mega-opoly. Meantime in the Globe, we're
still seeing "WROR-AM (105.7)." And which of these is supposed to be
the "newspaper of record"? Just wondering...

Boston University's public radio station, WBUR (90.9) Boston, is
taking yet another step towards 24 hour news and talk. 'BUR is
pulling the plug on Tony Cennamo's overnight jazz block. Cennamo is
an opinionated host whose views on what does (and doesn't) make good
jazz have polarized many in the Boston jazz community. He's also been
with 'BUR for what seems like forever. No word on whether anyone else
in town will pick up Cennamo's show.

Radio with pix: Providence RI Fox affiliate WNAC (Channel 64) is
taking advantage of Patriots-Super Bowl fever to launch its new 10pm
newscast. "Fox News Providence" debuts next week at 10pm, produced by
the news staff of CBS affiliate WPRI (Channel 12), which operates WNAC
under an LMA.

And finally this week, a major programming note from NERW Central:

After seven years in Boston, I'm picking up the radio and heading west
next month. Starting February 3, I'll be the assignment editor of R
News, Time Warner's 24-hour cable news channel in Rochester NY.
As most of you know, I've spent the past five years as a newswriter
and editor at Boston's WBZ, and while it's been an exciting, rewarding
place to work, I'm ready for a new challenge -- even if it is TV!

Don't panic, though -- NERW will live on. The nice thing about the
Internet is that I can use it just as easily from Rochester NY as from
Waltham MA. I'll still be getting regular Boston updates from NERW's
many friends up here, including Boston Radio Archives co-creator
Garrett Wollman and contributing editors Peter George, Donna Halper,
and so many others. The scope of this column will change a bit,
though -- as we change the name to "North East Radio Watcher." You
can still call us "NERW" for short, and we'll still cover the
goings-on on and off the air in the six New England states. Starting
this spring, though, you'll also read about what's happening in
upstate New York here in NERW, as I begin re-acquainting myself with
the radio dial I grew up with (it was emptier then!)

Our e-mail addresses won't change, and the Boston Radio Archives will
stay put at http://radio.lcs.mit.edu/radio/bostonradio.html, albeit
with an expansion of upstate NY content over the coming year. As I'll
be in the process of moving for most of February, please try to limit
e-mail to urgent news items!

My thanks to everyone who's helped NERW grow into the most
comprehensive source of New England broadcasting news and information
over the last few years. This isn't farewell -- I'll see you soon,
from a new location!